The Loudest Silence

There's a deafening art and majestic beauty to the sound of silence. The wave of it pulls across your skin like a warm blanket and ignites your senses in ways a car battery can't accomplish. The visible and tangible invisibility of it has the capacity to bring us to our knees in a snap of its melodic fingers and will reverberate in your soul for lifetimes ahead to experience.

It is the one element in our lives that has the ability to both speak to us and ignore us at the same time. It is unbridled POWER.

The power in the nothingness is the most underutilized tool and most of us run from it as if it's a stampede, catapulting uncontrollably towards our lives like the running of the bulls.

But it is this dark, metallic friend that is there for us even when we aren't looking. It's always waiting, following us like the shadow on the sidewalks of our lives. Just waiting for the opportunity for us to take notice. Waiting for us to realize the peace it carries and, like the greatest of romances, waiting for us to just take one glance its way.

There's irony all throughout that last paragraph.

One piece of that irony is; this suitor can bring us a peace like nothing else can in our lives. However, it can be a vandal, a stalker, a murder of that peace and all too often, when mismanaged becomes where we find the most pain in our lives. The romance, the relationship with it becomes utterly toxic. It is BOTH the yen and the yang.

Isaiah 30:15 says this, "For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, 'In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength..."

The quietness shall be your strength..... What?

There's so much to this passage that moves me, I don't know what it might be for you, but when I take a look at my own life; the most defining moments were preceded by a period of unrestful, insightful silence. For a poor cliche and imagery; this was always the "calm before the storm" motif that surely came before a major event. It can almost be guaranteed to go in that order almost every time.

The power in these moments is what is actually taking place. It is God opening up a soul to really get a handle on it and touch the right parts of it for the moments running its way. This is spiritual warmup, spiritual prep work in action.

Here's the catch up that most of us fall over and it's the LAST line of Isaiah 30:15:

"...... but YOU were unwilling."

We are not comfortable sitting in that silence, alone with our thoughts. We get shifty in our seats having to sit with just ourselves, with our hearts and a spirit that could be lost. When our spirit is longing for nourishment; silence is unbearable.

So most of us avoid it as if it's "ring around the rosy" and surely the plague is on the other side of it, lurking, waiting for us to slip up.

But, here's where the truth is like a slow mist in a mountain valley - God ASKS us to TRUST the quietness. Because here, in that void, is where Christ moves. He's specific about how He wants to stir our hearts. He's specific about how we will find Him.

In the quietest of steps and a hushed whisper this is when we can hear Him, "I'm with you."

Have you ever felt this? Have you ever been still enough to KNOW He's right there?

See, I write this right now because in some of the most destructive times of my life God brought me to my knees and like watching the waves crashing in on a sandy beach on MUTE, He nourished my soul. He hit the RESET button because only HE could. The storm inside of me is always raging and swelling to limits I can't always contain.

I want to move and shake, I want to LIVE. I need it. I CRAVE it. I never want to be the man on the sideline or in the stands critiquing the men in the arena. Those men are cowards and fakes. This has always kept my soul in a frenzy and stage of utter unrest. Our doctors call this ADHD. It is not and commonly misdiagnosed.

It's simply my spirit longing to be wild, longing to be free to roam the assignments God has given to me in this vapor of a lifetime that I'm fortunate enough to live.

The reassurance, the affirmation, the nourishment and the answer has always been in the silence. That stale quietness in those darker places. This is the doorway to the light. The strongest of us venture in to those stagnant places of our spirit knowing the occupational hazards. They do so knowing that in that search they are moving closer in their presence with Christ.

I can't encourage enough accepting this.

I can't stress enough seeking this.

If you find yourself stuck, uncertain, afraid, lacking that self esteem... Find that quiet space and LISTEN. Turn it all off around you and be intentional in your pursuit. Allow the discomfort to take over you because it will only linger for a moment. Push through this and what opens up is almost a euphoric, numb calm - stiller than the stillest of lakes but as pristine. AS beautiful.

Find comfort in the silence of your soul. It's the loudest silence you will ever know. But it is the most redeeming.

Navigate Intentionally.

Justin Copeland